


Here I Go Again

by afropogue



Series: julie and the glee kids [2]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Glee AU, Singing, glee club au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:55:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26901010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afropogue/pseuds/afropogue
Summary: glee club’s first meeting, and luke regrets joining the club. until something-or someone-makes him change his mind
Relationships: Alex & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie, Alex & Luke Patterson & Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms), Flynn & Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Series: julie and the glee kids [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1962652
Comments: 4
Kudos: 93





	Here I Go Again

**Author's Note:**

> i suggest you read the first part to this series but even if you don’t i think you can still read this and understand regardless.

“Don’t you think we’re a bit early?” Julie asks Flynn as they enter the choir room. None of the other glee club members are in the room, not even Mrs. Wilson wasn’t in the room yet. 

Flynn shrugs. She heads over to the platform rows of chairs, dropping her bag on one of them. Julie follows suit, sitting on the chair next to the one with Flynn’s bag, placing her own backpack next to her seat. She looks around the room. She hasn’t been in the choir room since before her mother died, and it hasn’t changed much. 

Flynn starts walking around the room, looking at the few posters and papers littered across the wall. “I’m pretty sure we’re on time. We still have a few minutes so they’re probably on their way.”

“I wonder who our new glee mates will be.” Julie comments. Flynn was her only friend. She had friendly acquaintances, but she wasn’t close to anyone enough to think of anyone specific she knew who were likely to join glee club. She hopes her fellow members were nice, it wouldn’t hurt to make new friends.

Flynn lights up when she spots the shape of a piano tucked away at the corner of the room.

“Ooo piano!” she says excitedly, heading over to the piano.

“Flynn don’t touch that!” Julie scolds.

Her friend rolls her eyes as she takes a seat on the piano bench. “I’m sure she won’t mind us using the piano.”

She places her finger on the lowest key, before sliding them down all the way to the highest key. Julie can’t help but let out a small smile. She used to do that at least once every time she was practicing piano. It’s a little childish but it’s fun.

Flynn gasps as if she’s just received an idea. “You should come play it Jules!”

Julie shook her head. She wasn’t ready yet. “Nah I’m good.”

“C’mon you’ve already sang at auditions, playing a little tune wouldn’t hurt?”

“Flynn I don’t think-“

There’s the sound of footsteps at the door, and the two girls turn and see three boys entering the room. They all look distinct; one has brown hair and is wearing a sleeveless blue hoodie (people still wear those?), the other one has dark black hair and was clad in a leather jacket with black jeans, and the last one is blonde, adorned in a pink hoodie. The trio look around the room, scoping out the choir room.

Flynn raises her eyebrows, watching them walk in. She shares a glance with Julie. They don’t look like they’d be in a glee club but they were cute boys so she wasn’t complaining.

“Hiya boys!” Flynn waves at them. 

Alex and Reggie greet them with hellos. 

“Oh um hi.” Luke says, earning a hit from Alex. Luke lets out a pained noise and glares at him, whispering an indignant “what?” after being hit. The blonde ignores him and heads over to the seats.

Julie waves at them as they walk toward the seats. They greet her as well before taking their seats in the row above hers.

It’s not a super big room, but there are more than enough chairs for the members, and adequate floor space.

Another boy walks in, this time a more familiar face to Julie and Flynn. 

Julie’s eyes widen when she sees the longer haired blonde boy, donned in his lacrosse hoodie. _What was Nick doing here?_

She knows he played guitar but singing? That was new. She doesn’t remember seeing him at auditions, then again she was so nervous she was mostly occupied with her own nerves than anything or anyone else.

She couldn’t help but wonder how his singing voice sounded.

Nick nods at everyone in the room. His eyes flash with recognition once they meet Julie’s. 

He heads over to her, sitting in the empty seat on her other side. He smiles at her. “Hey Julie, didn’t expect to see you here.”

Julie smiles back at him, blushing a little. She remembers her crush on him during freshman year, she was gone for him. Her crush on him naturally dissipated since then, thankfully, because she’s pretty sure he’s dating Carrie Wilson now, but it doesn’t stop her from getting slightly flustered in his presence.

“I could say the same about you.” she quips back. Flynn gets up from the piano bench, skipping over up to her seat.

“Nick! How’s it hanging?” she addresses him, leaning over from her seat to get a better look at Nick.

“Hey Flynn. Nice to see some familiar faces here.”

“Yeah, do you know those three?” Julie asks, nodding subtly in the direction of the other boys in the room.

Nick shakes his head. “No, but I think they’re upperclassmen.”

Mrs. Harrison finally walks into the room.

“Well hello everyone!” she greets them as she makes her way to the podium up front.

Everyone says their hellos to her. 

She places her elbows on the podium, leaning on them toward the front as she addresses the students. “Welcome to your first day of glee club! Congrats to you all who made the cut. You all did very well at your auditions, and I can see the potential in all of you. I know we aren’t the....biggest group, but we’ll hopefully get new members as time progress!” she explains.

Luke really doubts anyone else will join this. He already started to regret listening to Reggie when he stepped in the room. He didn’t recognize the only other three kids in the room, besides Alex and Reggie of course. It looked really lame overall, and the only good thing about it was that at least none of his classmates were there. 

“Now the best part of the first day: getting to know each other!” Mrs. Wilson grins at the groans she receives. Ice breakers are the worst. “You’ll be singing together so you’re gonna have to get to know each other sooner or later.”

“Can we please choose later. Much, much later.” Luke says. Mrs. Wilson gives him a pointed look, and Luke takes that as a no.

“Julie! Why don’t you start? Introduce yourself, say your grade and a fact about yourself.”

Julie blinks. “O-oh um I’m Julie Molina, I’m a sophomore, and I...like music.” Julie mentally facepalms. _Music?! Obviously you like music or else you wouldn’t be here._

Mrs. Wilson nods, gaze shifting over beside her to Flynn.

The dark skinned girl takes that as her cue to go and says, “I’m Flynn, also a sophomore, and I really like Fritos.”

“I’m Nick, sophomore as well, and I’m on the lacrosse team?”

“Well I’m Reggie, I’m a junior and I play bass.” Reggie makes a little guitar strumming motion. 

“Alex, a junior and I play the drums.”

Mrs, Harrison and the whole class turn their attention to Luke. Luke is slumped in his chair, with his arms crossed, pointedly staring at the wall across the room. He looks over, noticing the silence. “What?” he asks when he notices the eyes on him.

“It’s your turn.”

Luke wants to roll his eyes but he doesn’t want to seem rude especially on his first day. Besides, he is the one who decided to succumb to peer pressure and join this damn club. 

“My name is Luke, I’m a junior, and I play guitar.”

Mrs. Harrison nods in finality. “Okay, time for warm ups!” 

Mrs. Harrison makes them harmonize with each other, sitting behind the piano and giving them a short riff which they have to repeat in unison accordingly with the piano note.

Luke is starting to regret his decision more and more. He feels like he’s in that one mandatory music class he had to take in sixth grade. 

It gets even worse when Mrs. Harrison gives them a some random piece to sing, to test their abilities and how they all sound as a group. She only makes them practice a portion of the song, and surprisingly it’s not too difficult to learn.

Practicing the song still turns out to be another form of torture to Luke. Flynn and Reggie come up with a little dance routine to match the song, which everyone reluctantly agrees to except for Luke because he did not sign up for dancing. After 30 minutes or so of practicing the song, Mrs. Harrison makes them perform it out in front of her.

To sum it up, it’s painful. Painful for Mrs. Harrison to watch, and painful for the glee kids. 

They finish the song with jazz hands. Luke groans. “This is stupid. We suck.”

Flynn scoffs. “Hey we do not suck! We just need a little...practice....”

“Well can we at least practice with different songs because _show tunes?_ _Really?”_

“Hey!” Reggie interjects standing up from his kneeled position. “I like this song.”

Luke scowls at him, causing Reggie to look away sheepishly.

“Luke-“ Mrs. Harrison starts.

“This is dumb. All of this is dumb! I’m not even into this kind of music why the hell did I join this stupid club?” Luke huffs before storming out of the room. Alex reaches out a hand to stop him but Luke ignores it.

The whole room is silent after he walks out, everyone looking at each other awkwardly. 

“Well...that was dramatic.” Flynn mutters. Nick hums in agreement.

Mrs. Harrison purses her lips, staring at the top of the piano. She probably should’ve picked a better song. All of these kids were talented and their auditions had proven that, but she probably should’ve thought about how their voices would blend together. All of the students have different strengths vocal-wise, and it would take a little while to figure all of them out and choose the correct songs and parts that would suit all of them.

Alec clears his throat, filling the weird silence that overcame the room after Luke left. “He’s not used to singing with others who aren’t Reggie and I. He’ll be back.” he says. _I think,_ he doesn’t say out loud.

Mrs. Harrison sighs, rubbing her temple. “I...we just have a lot to work on. What time is it?”

Flynn takes out her phone from her pocket. She tells her the time displayed on her lock screen. 

Mrs. Harrison exhales through her nose. “I think we should call it early for today. We’ll meet here again Monday. Don’t strain your voices, because I’m going to go ham on testing out your individual abilities when we come back.” The class groans at that.

“You’re all dismissed. See you Monday.” Mrs. Harrison says, standing up from the piano.

The students all head back to their seats, picking up their backpacks and preparing to leave.

Alex is waiting by the door for Reggie, who is still packing up his stuff. Julie tentatively walks up to him. “Is Luke okay?” she asks like the sweet, concerned person she is. “He looked really upset earlier.”

Alex waves it off. “Oh yeah he’s fine. Glee isn’t really his...thing.” he assures, although deep down he’s not really sure. It’s not like Luke to get that upset, even if the mini performance they put on for Mrs. Harrison wasn’t....the best. Something else must be bothering him, but Alex doesn’t know what it could be.

Julie nods. “I can tell.” She doesn’t understand why Luke would join glee club if he didn’t really like it, but she figures he has his reasons.

“He’ll come around...eventually.” Alex assures again, which sounds unconvincing even to his ears.

Mrs Harrison starts walking toward them with a coffee cup in her hands. “I need more coffee.” she simply states exasperated, shaking the coffee cup in Julie and Alex’s direction before walking out the door.

“Well,” Flynn says loudly while adjusting her backpack straps, “I think this was a good first day of rehearsal don’t you guys think?” she asks the remaining members in the classroom.

Everyone gives her a look. She sheepishly laughs. 

***

Julie and Flynn arrive at the glee club room the following Monday. “Im going to the bathroom.” Flynn announces after dropping her bag in her seat, then she leaves the room.

Julie sits in her seat staring at the front of the room. They were early again, so she’s all alone.

Her eyes flit over to the piano. Maybe she could-

 _No!_ Julie quickly averts her eyes from the piano. Was she ready? No of course she wasn’t. It isn’t the same playing without her mother in her corner. Playing only brought back memories she didn’t want to think about.

But...Flynn was right. She survived auditions and sang her heart out, something she hasn’t done in a while. She didn’t think she would’ve been able to sing so freely again after her mother passed, but somehow she did.

Julie looks back at the piano again. She stands up, placing her phone on the seat before walking down the platform steps. She pulls out the piano bench and takes a seat. 

Julie gently lifts up the lid of the piano. She stares down at the shiny keys, almost afraid to touch them. She honestly feels really stupid for feeling so apprehensive over playing a damn piano.

She places her fingers on the keys in standard position. She tries to think of a song she knows how to play. Hmm.

Julie relaxes her shoulders, noticing how tense she is. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, slowly letting it out.

Then she begins to play, singing along to the melody.

_“No, I don't know where I'm goin'  
But I sure know where I've been  
Hanging on the promises in songs of yesterday  
And I've made up my mind  
I ain't wasting no more time”_

Luke trudges down the hallway in the direction of the glee club room. He feels a bit guilty about walking out on rehearsal a couple days ago. He’d just been so frustrated. He’s been arguing with his parents more often, and it’s increased his stress levels. And yes, the glee rehearsal had been very painful, he wasn’t lying about that, but he shouldn’t have let the stress get to him and overreact like that in front of his fellow glee members.

Alex and Reggie aren’t with him, since they probably assumed he wouldn’t come back to glee club. And they were right, he’s only on his way to glee club to tell Mrs. Harrison he’s quitting. 

Luke lets out a silent sigh as he prepares to enter the room. He almost feels bad about quitting, because Mrs. Harrison seemed so eager about this club, but it’s not like his presence would be missed anyway. Well maybe physically since there’s literally only six of them in the club so far, but he’d only hold the group down with his frustrations and lack of enthusiasm.

He pauses when he hears music coming from inside the room. It sounds like a piano paired with...singing?

It doesn’t sound like Mrs. Harrison. Well, he hasn’t heard Mrs. Harrison sing but something tells him it’s not her singing voice.

He attempts to make as little noise as possible. He doesn’t want to startle whoever is singer, and even more so he doesn’t want it to stop because the voice and piano-playing is beautiful.

His eyes widen when he sees who is behind the piano singing. It’s the latina girl who he met last Glee rehearsal.

She definitely belongs in this club. Her voice is so melodic, refreshing and beautiful. A voice he’s never heard before.

He definitely recognizes the song, even in piano music form. Of course he knows the song; ‘Here I Go Again’ by Whitehouse, is a rock _classic._

He walks closer as she continues singing. She’s too immersed in her singing to notice the other presence in the room. Her eyes are even closed as she sings.

_”Just another heart in need of rescue  
Waiting on love's sweet charity....”_

Luke doesn’t know what prompts him to cut in, but his mouth seems to have a mind of his own as he continues the next verse,

_“I'm gonna hold on for the rest of my days  
'Cause I know what it means”_

Julie jumps slightly, eyes opening wide in surprise at the addition of a new voice. Luke inches closer, now standing in front of the piano. 

Julie doesn’t stop playing, but she stops singing. She’s still a bit surprised that Luke of all people is singing along with her.

Luke continues, ignoring her silence, _“To walk along the lonely street of dreams.”_ He gives her a small smile, a non verbal invitation for her to keep singing along with him.

Julie isn’t sure what’s happening but she tentatively nods. She has to admit, Luke’s voice is beautiful.

Luke and Julie maintain eye contact as they sing the chorus together.

_“And here I go again on my own  
Goin' down the only road I've ever known  
Like a drifter, I was born to walk alone”_

Julie lets Luke sing the next line, _“And I've made up my mind”_

Julie continues the next line, _“I ain't wasting no more time”_

They start singing in unison again at the chorus,  
_“But here I go again on my own  
Goin' down the only road I've ever known  
Like a drifter, I was born to walk alone”_

Luke sings an individual line again, eyes staring at Julie’s as he leans on the piano, _“Cause I know what it means”_

_“To walk along the lonely street of dreams”_

_“Here I go again on my own  
Goin' down the only road I've ever known”  
Like a hobo I was born to walk alone  
I have made up my mind  
I ain't wasting no more time”_

_“But here I go again  
Here I go again  
Here I go again  
Here I go  
Here I go again”_

Julie and Luke’s voices fade as the song ends, voices still maintaining that soft harmony.

The two are still staring at each other, even after a few seconds have passed since the song ended. Julie snaps out of it, shaking off her daze and averting her eyes to the piano keys “That was....”

“Awesome.” Luke finishes, grinning at her. A small smile settles on Julie’s face. “So you like rock?”

Julie nods. “I love rock! I know this song is a bit more mainstream but it’s still a classic.”

Luke nods fervently. “No no of course. It’s just that, I still wouldn’t expect it to be most people’s first choice to play on piano.

Julie shrugs. “It was the first song that came to mind. Also I didn’t know you could sing that well.”

“I didn’t know you could sing that well either.” Luke replies.

“Guess we have a lot to learn about each other.” Julie blurts out. Luke just nods dumbly, still a little dazed from the duet they just sang. The way their voices melted together into the piano rendition of a classic song...he never would’ve expected to have such an experience.

Julie felt the same way. About their singing, of course. She hasn’t sang with another person since her mother died. She’s done karaoke with Flynn a couple times, but it wasn’t the same. What she just did with Luke...it was an incredible feeling. They had some weird sort of chemistry as they sang. It’s strange, because she barely knows the boy, but still, it felt like their voices were supposed to go together. As if their voices were made to duet.

Say, she would make a great addition to the band. Especially since they were short one band member.....

“Oh...my gosh!” Flynn’s voice suddenly shouts, ruining their moment. Her hands are covering her mouth. “That was AMAZING!!”

Julie smiles nervously. “Oh um thanks Flynn. How much of that did you hear....or see?” 

“Only heard like, a little less than half of it sadly.” Flynn says solemnly, as if she’s genuinely upset that she missed most of the song. “You guys should totally do it again! We still have time right?”

Julie and Luke look at each other, smiling sheepishly. Then Reggie, Alex and Nick start entering the room.

Flynn groans. “I can’t believe I didn’t get to see that entire performance. I should’ve recorded it.” Flynn pouts.

“What performance?” Nick asks from across the room.

“Julie and Luke! Their voices-the song-they can _sing!”_

“Well duh isn’t that how they got into glee club?” Reggie questions. Alex hits his shoulder, causing Reggie to flinch. “What?”

Flynn squints at Reggie before shaking her head. “No I mean they sound _uh-mazing_ together!”

“Who sounds amazing together?” Mrs. Harrison asks, walking in the room. Julie quickly closes the lid and stands up from the piano.

Flynn opens her mouth to answer when Julie beats her to it. “Oh nothing, we were just harmonizing for a little bit, nothing big.”

Mrs. Harrison hums, mostly distracted with putting her stuff down.

Luke doesn’t know why Julie’s suddenly all nervous, but he brushes it off and heads over to his seat, where Alex and Reggie are giving him confused looks. 

“Thought you were quitting?” Reggie asks.

Luke sighs. “I was going to. But...I want to give glee club a chance. Today’s only the second day, I shouldn’t judge it so harshly.” He didn’t tell them that the duet he just sang with Julie made him feel _things_ he can’t explain. He wants to sing with her again, and perhaps staying in the glee club and getting closer to her would motivate her to join their band!

Reggie claps his shoulder. “I’m glad you came around! Wouldn’t be the same without my two besties!”

“Don’t call us besties.” Alex says, rolling his eyes, but there’s no bite to his tone, and the corner of his lips even tilts up. Luke smiles at his friends as well.

They take their seats once Mrs. Harrison begins class. She scans her eyes across the rows of students, checking to see who is present. It’s not difficult at all, since there’s less than ten students in the room. She still has hope that more people will join in the future.

She notices Luke sitting with his friends again.

“Luke, I didn’t expect you to be here.” she says, obviously referring to his outburst last rehearsal. 

“Oh um yeah, I apologize for that. I was just frustrated and had some stuff going on. Won’t happen again.” Luke says.

Mrs. Harrison hums. “It’s okay, things happen. You guys still have to get used to each other’s voices since you’ll be singing together a lot. We have a lot of work to do.”

Luke nods. Mrs. Harrison starts relaying the agenda for the rehearsal. 

Julie suddenly looks up, turning her head in the direction of Luke and his friends. She makes eye contact with Luke.

Luke gives her a small smile but she quickly looks away.

 _Hmm. Why was she acting so weird after our impromptu duet?_ He figures she must be shy.

He doesn’t think too much of it. They had all the time in the world to be friends and even sing together again. _Maybe glee club would be interesting after all._

**Author's Note:**

> if you follow my twitter, you know im not really a...palina/juke stan lol. but for the sake of having that glee-esque relationship drama, i added some juke in there!
> 
> i got more parts on the way for the series. more ships, friendship, and parts based on songs/actual glee episodes. ill try to choose more popular songs and might even add songs from the show since sunset curve is kinda still a thing in this au. 
> 
> pls excuse any mistakes i need to proofread this again later lol
> 
> speaking of my twitter, check me out on there: @afropogue


End file.
